A Decision Support System for Assessing High School Students' Soft Skills Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Assessing students' soft skills in educational settings is often challenging due to the subjectivity and inconsistency inherent in evaluating qualitative traits. This study employs the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a decision support tool to provide a more systematic, consistent, and objective method for evaluating students' soft skills. The assessment model is based on four key criteria—critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity—each further broken down into measurable subcriteria. The study was conducted at MA Mu’allimin Sruweng Kebumen, where evaluations were carried out by a guidance and counseling teacher acting as an expert evaluator, using a numerical scale ranging from 1 to 100. Pairwise comparison matrices were developed using Saaty’s fundamental scale to determine the weights for both criteria and subcriteria, followed by consistency testing using the Consistency Ratio (CR). The findings reveal that critical thinking and collaboration were assigned the highest priority weights, with all comparison matrices meeting the acceptable consistency threshold. The resulting global preference values offer a more objective, proportional representation of students’ soft skills achievements. This AHP-based model enables fairer, more consistent evaluations and provides quantitative outputs that can be utilized for student ranking and structured feedback in educational decision-making.